Winter Park to vote on restricting picketing in front of homes

If you picket in front of a home in Winter Park to target those who live there, expect legal consequences.

That's the decision the Winter Park City Commission made this month, joining Orlando and other cities across the country that have adopted similar protections for residents.

The commission passed an ordinance that made picketing aimed at specific homes punishable as a misdemeanor. Commissioners are to take a final vote Monday night.

"For me, it's been my most difficult vote," said Mayor Ken Bradley, the only member of the commission to vote against making the restriction permanent. "I believe the ordinance goes too far in really limiting our constitutional rights."

Commissioners took action after a group of anti-abortion-rights activists picketed the home of Jenna Tosh, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, in August.

Bradley said he was concerned that the ordinance would infringe on free speech rights. He said he had received "a lot of emails from all over the country as well as locally" commending him for his stance.

But during a Sept. 10 meeting, when the commission first voted to make the change permanent, only people who did not live in the city spoke against it. Three Winter Park residents spoke in favor of it.

The ordinance requires protesters to remain away from the property line of a targeted residence. Picketing in parks and other public areas is not affected.

Tosh said she was grateful for the city's move. "This ordinance keeps not only my family, but all Winter Park families, free from harassment and bullying in their own homes," she said.

"I support respectful political discourse, but these tactics are creating environments of intimidation and fear that affect the entire community."

Jay Rogers, a local anti-abortion-rights activist who calls himself a pro-life evangelist, made a video of the event outside Tosh's home. Rogers said he and others who were involved are likely to demonstrate outside Tosh's home again, testing how the city will respond — and that they are willing to go to jail.

"The irony of the Winter Park ordinance is that it will probably force us to place more of an emphasis now on Jenna Tosh," he said in an email. "Thus the ordinance will do exactly the opposite of what the city commission hopes it will do. And ultimately, if past precedent is any indicator, we will probably win our right to peacefully demonstrate."

However, attorneys for the city and First Amendment scholars are confident that the ordinance will hold up under legal scrutiny because the U.S. Supreme Court upheld similar ordinances in the case of Frisby v. Schultz in 1988.

"There is a line of case law that says the government can restrict protests as to time, place and manner," said Catherine Cameron, a Stetson University law professor. "If this ordinance had been content-specific, the ordinance would have had a much higher hurdle."